: LA PEÑA IN THE NEWS
La Peña Cultural Center Presents: 10th Annual Hecho en Califas Festival
Unidos en la Resistencia
by La Peña News
source: l
Thursday October 8, 2009
Farid Mercury
The multi-discipline festival marks its 10th anniversary premiering two major commissioned performances: Raw-Dios - a look into the pop cultural landscape of the “Shock and Awe” era - by headRush and Farid Mercury - a mash-up of the words and lyrics of iconic rockstar, Farrokh Bulsara, AKA Freddie Mercury, Queen, with Iranian characters - by Robert Karimi.
La Peña proudly presents the 10th annual Hecho en Califas Festival, an extraordinary event that has become one of the most comprehensive showcases of young artists of color and progressive art, expanding from a California focus to feature artists from around the United States. Presenters and artists from across the nation are invited to attend this event.
Marking this year’s 10th anniversary of the festival will be the premiere of two major commissions. “Raw-Dios” written and performed by local bay area activist/artists headRush and “Farid Mercury” by Robert Karimi.
La Peña is also excited to be partnering with the Ashby Stage (Shotgun Players) to present both new works simultaneously throughout the 5 day festival. Along with the premiere of these two works the festival will also host an evening of music, poetry and artist dialogue. 
WORLD PREMIERE: Raw-Dios: Behind the Pigpen in the Morning
November 11, 12 & 13
$10 advance/students, $12 general admission
8pm at La Pena Cultural Center
By headRush crew
Directed by Lakin Valdez
Starring: Luis xago Juárez, Mona Webb, Rosa González and Tommy Shepherd
“Raw-Dios: Behind the Pigpen in the Morning,” takes us into the pop cultural landscape of the “Shock and Awe” era, when the US began bombing Iraq and Americans were bombarded with commercial distractions and blind vengeance. Four working class listeners with their own intertwining stories of vengeance are inspired by a raunchy radio DJ when he suddenly breaks with the corporate script only to be thrown up against an unflinching power structure. Raw-Dios is a story of struggle over control of the airwaves and their power to affect human consciousness.
Farid Mercury
8pm November 13, 14
2pm Matinee November 15
$10 advance/students, $12 at the door
THIS SHOW WILL BE PRESENTED AT THE ASHBY STAGE
1901 Ashby Avenue Berkeley, CA 94705
Written and Performed by Robert Farid Karimi
Live Soundscape performed by DJ D Double
Directed by Brian Freeman
Choreography by Leah Nelson
A full length play “experience”: part rock concert, part documentary theatre, focusing on Persian masculinity in the post 9/11 world.
Farid Mercury is a mash-up of the words and lyrics of iconic rockstar, Farrokh Bulsara (AKA Freddie Mercury, former lead singer of Queen) with Iranian characters from interviews conducted by critically acclaimed performance artist Robert Farid Karimi. With the help of a live soundscape spun live by all-star DJ D Double, Karimi examines the multifaceted dimensions of Persian masculinity in terms of homosexuality, US-Iranian historical relations, the current political climate in Iran, and pop culture. Karimi channels Freddie Mercury, a Persian Zoroastrian, as a spiritual guide, who provides his own story of Persian masculinity and offers Karimi, and the audience, a window into a way immigrants globally negotiate identity in new homelands. “The bottom line is [Karimi] has discovered a powerful, distinctive voice, all he needs now is an audience.” – Chicago Reader
PLATICA: 10 YEARS OF HECHO EN CALIFAS
Raza Renaissance, or Just Flavor of the Month?
November 14
2pm FREE at La Peña Cultural Center
In 2001, Bay Area Latino music critic Jesse “Chuy” Varela called the Hecho en Califas programming at La Peña “a raza renaissance” for Latino twentysomethings. Now celebrating its tenth year, the Hecho en Califas Festival represents a wide spectrum of Latino performance artists and styles from California and beyond. Several of the young artists featured at Hecho began developing their work at La Peña and other Bay Area venues, and have expanded their projects to national and international audiences and venues. This platica will convene artists and producers to discuss the impact venues like Hecho en Califas can have on young Latino artists. What are the new opportunities for Latinos artists to develop their work locally and nationally? What are the new venues and audiences interested in supporting Latino arts? Join the discussion about the future success of Latino arts in the Bay Area and beyond with moderator Paul S. Flores.
Diskarte Namin
HomeMade - A Celebration of Bay Area Flavor
An evening of Art, Music, and Dance
Curated By Weyland Southon
November 14
$10 advance/students, $12 at the door
Doors open at 9pm at La Peña Cultural Center
Many of us are among the First Generations of our families to navigate the often elusive, always schizophrenic American Dream. In that context, we are pioneers. We are the first to get citizenship; the first to graduate; the first to get a “good” job. We carry with us the hopes of previous generations who struggled to make our time easier than theirs.
We are manifestations of the American Dream, and we are also architects of the American Dream. We have learned to embrace the freedoms that are available and we are often the first in our families to reclaim art as a vocation. We become poets, dancers, musicians, DJ's, rappers, performers, filmmakers, writers, designers, and painters. We do things our parents and grandparents could never imagine. Our creative output reflects this experience. We are the innovators, re-mixers, tastemakers and trendsetters who make Bay Area culture.
BRWN BFLO
BELOVED: A Requiem for Our Dead
Because We Refuse to Forget You
Curated by Mangos with Chili
November 15
$10 advance/students, $12 at the door
8pm at La Peña Cultural Center
Through elegies of story, song, dance, drag and more, the Bay Area’s noted and notorious queer and trans people of color performance crew will honor our erased, fallen, and slain queer, two spirit and trans of color family. We will remember queer and trans people of color lost to hate crimes, war, colonization, and genocide, and celebrate our ancestor’s legacies and the ways we’ve found to survive violence through the beautiful resistance of memory. Come here us whisper stories about grief, loss, healing, sweet darkness, and walking between world towards rebirth.
Mangos With Chili is a Bay Area based arts organization committed to showcasing high quality work of life saving importance by queer and trans artists of color to audiences in the Bay Area and beyond. Founded in 2006 by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Ms Cherry Galette, Mangos With Chili has performed to sold out houses across North America, wowing audiences in world class theaters, underground performance spaces, bars, and campus halls, with their high intensity, breathtaking performance, politics, and storytelling craft, reflecting the lives and stories of queer and trans people of color, while making art that speaks out in resistance to the daily struggles around silence, isolation, homophobia, and violence that QTPOC face.
Hecho en Califas Visual Art Exhibits
Fri. Nov. 13: Opening receptions. 6:30 - 8pm. At the Cafe Lobby.
In Theater: October 22 - Nov. 29. The artwork of Native American activist, political prisoner and six-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Leonard Peltier. Curated by Bird Levy Strain. La Peña Cultural Center and Polu Manu Productions proudly presents:The artwork of Native American political prisoner Leonard Peltier. The highly-praised artwork of Native American activist, Leonard Peltier will be exhibited in Berkeley's La Peña theater from October 19 until November 30, 2009.
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For more information and/or to sign up to be a Festival reviewer or become part of our street team and receive free tickets please contact Sarah Guerra at <sarah@lapena.org>
All events (except "Farid Mercury") will be held at La Peña Cultural Center. Advance Tickets available at www.lapena.org or call 510-849-2568 x 20.
La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94705 (two blocks from Ashby BART)
510-849-2568
La Peña thanks all the of the supporters of the 10th annual Hecho en Califas Festival and our ongoing work: the Ford Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Doris Duke Chartitable Foundation, The Non Profit Finance Fund, Walter and Elise Haas Fund, National Performance Network, Alameda County Arts commission, Berkeley Civic Arts commission, Kaiser Permanete Thrive, National Endowment for the Arts, San Francisco Foundation, Vanguard Foundation, Zellerbach Family Fund, Firedoll Foundation, and all of our generous individual donors.
